Back to menu

Torture

After the unimaginable brutality of the 2nd world war, both Britain and the United States established a series of human rights declarations to prevent the horrors of war ever happening again. Central to these declarations was an absolute ban on torture, and that it could never be justified in any circumstances.

But, led once again by the US, we are blithely chopping away at the last leg we have to stand on when we condemn other nations for their use of this most inhumane of acts. The people who are suffering for it are suffering the unimaginable, and if they are released, they are carefully forgotten by a government to whom they are little more than an uncomfortable embarrassment

Torture Camps
After 9/11 the US set up a series of camps around the world where they could torture with impunity. The three most well know were Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

“There’s footage of president Bush speaking about the importance of getting the right information out of individuals he characterised as criminals at Guantanamo, and in many of those shots Mr. Blair is standing right beside him, silent. In international law that’s not good enough. Once credible information emerges, in relation to abuse or standards of treatment falling below international standards, it is necessary for the government to act to satisfy itself that abuse is not taking place.”
Philippe Sands

Rendition
“Rendition had been going on for decades back to the nineteenth century, but that always involved in the old style of rendition bringing people back to a courtroom to go before a judge and jury to face charges in public.”
Stephen Grey

Extraordinary Rendition is the exact opposite; as it involves flying people to countries other than the US that openly practice torture. The CIA uses Gulfstream Jets to deposit people in secret locations in countries like Algeria, Egypt, Syria, & Uzbekistan. They are handed over to the local authorities with a list of questions. The suspect is then tortured and the answers are handed back to the CIA. The benefits to the countries themselves are obvious:

“In return many of these countries got, sort of, diplomatic support, got money and they got good intelligence about people who were against their regime This is a method os extractive torture without the messy business of doing the torturing yourself. Before 9/11 all these countries were regarded by the US and the UK as dangerous states with appalling human rights records. Since they all started allowing the US to outsource torture to their soil, they are suddenly called “Allies in the war on Terror”.
Stephen Grey

The problem for the CIA was that it’s quite a long trip to the countries that offer discreet and economical torture services. Passing through European airspace, these CIA flights need to refuel on the way.

During 2005, substantial evidence came to light that CIA Torture Flights had not only passed through British Airspace but had used UK airports to refuel. The Bush Administration itself admitted in late 2005 that it was using Extraordinary Rendition, and that European Governments were involved. This put New Labour in a tight spot: Under International Law flying people from a jurisdiction that doesn’t torture to one that does is completely illegal. Not only that but any government who facilitates this is as culpable as the torturers themselves.

A European Parliament investigation also handed over a detailed report to the British Government which contained detailed evidence that Extraordinary Rendition had been taking place. Baroness Ludford and her team took dozens of statements from torture victims which matched exactly to the CIA flight logs that the witnesses could not have had access to.

“I think we do have to be seriously troubled by what appears to have taken place, both by the British Government and up to a dozen other European governments, there does seem to have been some systemic failure for Europe to live up to its human rights commitments and aspirations.”
Baroness Ludford

The practice still continues to this day.

Memoranda of Understanding
According to their obligations under the absolute ban on torture, neither the USA nor Britain can deport anyone to a country where they believe they will be tortured. But to sidestep their obligations to protect people from torture the UK Government has signed Memoranda of Understanding with several countries with long and detailed history of human rights abuses including Lybia, Algeria, Syria and Egypt. This is an agreement that if certain individuals are returned to a country, the Government of that country agrees not to torture them.

“These countires have promised the international community that they will torture nobody and our reports year after year show that they systematically and routinely use torture. The British government thinks that by getting the signature of those governments saying that they won’t torture a particular individual. It’s an absolute nonsense to think that’s worth the paper that it is written on.”
Kate Allen

The government is still trying to deport terror suspects to these countries and a recent Home Office review stated:

“The Government is also seeking to challenge the current case law around Article 3 of the ECHR, to strike an appropriate balance between the rights of those suspected of terrorism and the rights of the British community at large. Alongside this, the Government is successfully negotiating a series of memoranda of understanding to allow the deportation of suspects to their home countries”

Back to menu